Top Irish musicians have united with the finest Nashville players to create the fiery new sound and energy of The Nashville Celts. The Nashville Celts combine tight vocal harmonies with energetic Irish trad breaks, originals and a couple Irish versions of classic Country covers, melding Irish instrumentation with 5 string banjo, mandolin, and dobro.  

The Nashville Celts award winning fiddler/vocalist Maggie Lander, Grammy nominated Nashville songwriter Ric Blair on vocals/guitar/bodhran/piano, Patrick D’Arcy (U2, Sting, Josh Groban) from Dublin, Ireland on uilleann pipes/whistles, and Matt Menefee  (Mumford & Sons, Bruce Hornsby) 5 string banjo/mandolin/dobro/vocals.

The Nashville Celts pack concert halls around the world including The Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman Auditorium, The Lincoln Center, and Performing Arts Centers, Theaters and large Casinos across the country; including multiple appearances on NPR, WSM Radio, PBS shows like Music City Roots and The Bluegrass Underground. Later this year they are set to appear on the Woodsong’s Old Time Radio Hour which also airs on PBS. Blair credits much of their success to their exposure on PBS. The group has shared the stage with Vince Gill, Cathy Jordan, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan, Ricky Skaggs, Tim O’Brien, Patty Loveless, just to name a few.   

When asked about their musical style, leader of the group Ric Blair says, "I wanted to assemble not only great musicians from both sides of the pond but also great songwriters to form The Nashville Celts and I think we’ve done that.  Irish music was a huge influence towards the development of American Bluegrass, Country and pop music.  So, our goal was to bring the music back full circle, but to also combine the emotion of ancient Irish instruments with the pop sensibility of American music.”

In 2010, Blair produced the national PBS pledge show Christmas with The Celts which was performed at the original Grand Ole Opry, (voted top venue by Pollstar) the world-famous Ryman Auditorium.  Christmas with The Celts aired on 222 PBS channels across the U.S., Canada and on the BBC in Ireland. This successful TV show was the initial spark, which created a huge demand for the group, bringing them into major venues.  Christmas with the Celts is currently going into it’s 8th year of touring.

The Nashville Celts record entitled Sons of Sailors is currently spinning on over 130 Americana and AAA Radio stations in cities across the US and Canada.